Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Evidence is in the Mess

I awoke this morning to a very messy house. Not one big mess, but lots of little messes. Each mess has it's own story, one that develops in three parts:

1) The beginning, everything looks promising. Perhaps something fun is about to happen.2) Things quickly get out of hand and stuff begins to accumulate/fly all over the place.3) Duck and cover. Run from the mess, lest it consume you!

Now, I am actually pretty laid back about messes. Have I ever told you about the time (in high school) when I poured glitter all over the floor of my bedroom. I think it seemed like a good idea at the time---the end result was glitter stuck mostly to the bottom of my feet, turning up for months. My family struggled to understand why the mess mattered so little to me.

Now that I am a full-fledged adult I do try to (and I usually succeed) keep a clean house. I mop, sweep, vacuum and pick up regularly. However, there are times when I just throw my hands up and let it go, because in my heart I really don't care. I look at messes as evidence of good times, fun projects, little histories.

"Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational. "-Hugh Mackay

“Living with a dog is messy - like living with an idealist”- Henry Louis Mencken

“I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.”-Kitty O'Neill Collins

“If your house is really a mess and a stranger comes to the door greet him with, "Who could have done this? We have no enemies”-Phyllis Diller

"Beginnings are always messy."- John Galsworthy

"Success is relative: It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things."- T. S. Eliot

9 comments:

i used to be a perfctionist when it came to having a clean house, but you just cant be that way with kids or you'll go nuts. now im somewhere in the middle-i can handle some clutter, but actual filth disgusts me. i insist on clean bathrooms and a clean kitchen.

Last night at 11:30 when we could barely keep our eyes open, we surveyed the messes around our house and said, "Tomorrow." Then crawled in bed and went to sleep. Messes can always be cleaned up tomorrow. :)

haha. :) i love what i can imagine from your messes - lots of real, good life going on.

we have quite a few little messes going right now. the dining room table is covered with a memory book in progress . . . and the dishes are all stacked neatly by the sink, but not done - i've been making a memory book with my kids, what can i say? . . . the uno cards are out . . . isaac has a lego town in progress . . . but like you said - i think, especially when something creative is going on, no mess means no fun, no living.

haha. :) i love what i can imagine from your messes - lots of real, good life going on.

we have quite a few little messes going right now. the dining room table is covered with a memory book in progress . . . and the dishes are all stacked neatly by the sink, but not done - i've been making a memory book with my kids, what can i say? . . . the uno cards are out . . . isaac has a lego town in progress . . . but like you said - i think, especially when something creative is going on, no mess means no fun, no living.

I have always wished to be a domestic goddess, to have a sparkly house, to be in control, to make everything effortless, but the reality is that I HATE housework, but i do it, begrudgingly. I love being in a clean house, I just don't want to do the cleaning!